About Me

 

What do I mean by "about me"? What am I doing currently and what have I been doing all these years? It is not easy to summarize what I have been doing all these years in this section. But I will try to put in as much as I can. The original idea for this section was just to put what I am doing currently. This was more for my family and my friends to know what all have I been doing since coming to US. But now I realized that this section ought not to be just about what I am doing currently, but should more be a reflection on my personality.  So basically I have presented my brief autobiography. Keep checking back for updates.

 

But first a description of what I am doing currently. I am a graduate student pursuing my master's degree at the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department of University of Washington's (UW) Seattle campus. I am currently in to the third year of my graduate studies and intend to complete the degree by end of this year. I work in the Mechanics, Materials, and Manufacturing (MMM) group. The ME department is one of the reputed departments in the nation. The UW's Seattle campus is one of the most scenic campuses in the nation. The campus is located on the west side of Lake Washington. On a clear day one can get a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier from the campus. Our football stadium, known as “Husky Stadium”, is located right on Lake Washington and is one of the most famous stadiums in the nation, and one of the most scenic ones. For more campus images, visit the photo gallery page.

 

It has been a roller coaster ride for me so far at UW and in US. I have seen some of the high and low points of my life here. Also, I met some really great friends here, whose friendship I will value my whole life. It was really wonderful to have friends from different nationalities.  

 

    This has been my first time out of home, entirely by me. The experiences that I have gained are invaluable and priceless. Most importantly I have realized how much I miss my family and friends. 

 

Research

One common question that most people ask me is what I am doing for my Master's research. Well, my current research focuses on the analysis of Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) cutting and drilling of advanced (mainly aerospace) materials. It's a state of the art technology in manufacturing and holds a bright future. One of the main advantages of AWJ is the absence of Heat Affected Zone (HAZ). It came out into prominence during early 80's thanks largely to its extensive application in aerospace industry. It's still being vastly used in aerospace industry. However, it's still a very hot topic of research.

 

My main focus is on the Titanium, which is a very hard material to machine using conventional machining methods. However, it is very popular and current material of focus in aerospace industry. I'm also working on composites and aluminums. Parts of my research focuses on the study of parametric effects of process parameters like supply pressure, mesh size etc on the surface quality of the AWJ cut surface. We used Design of Experiments (DOE) to design the experimental runs and collected data was analyzed to predict the parametric effects. Also, I'm trying to analytically model the AWJ drilling process through which we will try to predict the maximum depth drilled by an AWJ drill based upon the process parameters. However, it's not easy to analytically model this process owing to a large number of process parameters involved and the unknown nature of their interaction.

 

Apart from this, I'm also extending help to my brother on his research project. The project is titled “Development of a Simulation Model and Optimization of Layout of a Public Sector Industry”. This is a joint project between Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD) and Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL – The largest turnkey enterprise in India). This is an extension of senior year project of my undergraduate degree. BHEL Project to see the details of the project.

 

Background

Now a little background information of me. I was born in a small town called Nidadavole in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh state in the beautiful country of India. My family lived in New Delhi, the capital of India. My grandparents (mother’s side) lived in Nidadavole. So for delivery, my mother went to her parent’s house. Into my fourth month, my mother took me back to Delhi. Since, then I have lived in New Delhi for most part of my life till now. I did my kindergarten, primary, middle and secondary education. I did my primary and middle education in Kendriya Vidyalaya. For secondary education or grade XIth and XIIth in Indian education system, I moved to Modern School Vasant Vihar. Right after finishing my secondary education, I couldn’t get into any public university. So, I decided to take off 1 year and again prepared for competitive exams. This time I got into Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. After that, for graduate studies I came over to Seattle, about which you have already read.

The biggest influence on my life has been my late mother. She’s my role model. Though, she’s no longer in this world, but she will always remain in my heart. Her death has left a big hole in my life. My younger brother Praveen is currently residing in India. My brother and I are very close, and after our mother’s death it is constant endeavor of both of us to keep each other motivated in life and takes care of each other, but to a certain degree I have failed in my responsibilities towards my brother. Even though right now we’re half way around the globe apart, but my dream is someday we would both settle near each other, so that we can visit each other pretty frequently, and make up for the two and half years of distance. You can learn more about my family here. You can find more information on my hometown of New Delhi here, and on my home country of India here. Also, I have tried to put together my travel experiences on my road trips here in US.   

 

My Life in Seattle

I’ve stayed in Seattle for past 2 years or rather 26 months to be more precise. I have enjoyed every moment of my stay here. This is one of the prettiest cities that I’ve seen. One of the things that I admire the most about the Emerald City (Seattle’s nickname) is it’s laid back attitude and multi-cultural/ethnic environment. The city is surrounded on one side by the Puget Sound and on the other side by Lake Washington. And a canal connecting the two water bodies passes through the middle of the city. Not only that, the city get a lot of rainfall; the rainy months being from October to May. But during summer months, it’s absolutely gorgeous weather. There isn’t snowfall every year in Seattle. The temperature round the year ranges from 30 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

The main feature or rather attraction of city is "Mt. Rainier". Mt. Rainier is also an active volcano. Mt. Rainier forms a perfect backdrop for the city. The other main attraction of the city is the “Space Needle” that was built for the 1962 World Fair.

 

The Royal Manor Apartments was the first apartment complex that I stayed in Seattle. It's mere two blocks walking distance from northern part of the university campus. However, my department being in southeastern part of the campus, therefore the walking distance from my department to my home was 15 minutes. The location of the apartment complex was excellent as it was on the bus lines to some important parts of the city.

 

 
© Prasant Posinasetti 2002